Open science must be promoted by all means necessary, states the Finnish Ministry of Education and Culture. The ministry emphasizes that it is vital that the negotiations between FinELib and scholarly publishers find a solution that is financially sustainable for the scientific community. Open science is the starting point for national contract negotiations, and the contracts must significantly increase the opportunity for Finnish researchers to publish openly. The objective is to have open access to all scientific publications by 2020.

Already 2 700 researchers have signed a statement in support of FinELib’s negotiations, demanding that the cost of scientific publications must not get out of hand. The researchers support the negotiation goals for increased open access and reasonable pricing, and are prepared to abstain from refereeing and editorial duties for the journals of the publishers involved in the negotiations, if the goals are not realized.

FinELib will report on the negotiation situation with individual publishers on this website in the next few days.